Skynut

Skynut heads to Siggraph Asia 2020 /  by Aleks Sakowski

Stoked to announce that Skynut was been selected for SIGGRAPH Asia

2020 as part of their computer animation theater, which showcases outstanding animated works. Congrats to the whole team, we are up there amongst some stellar work. Siggraph events are the premier conference and exhibition in computer graphics from around the world. This year it's virtual due to Covid. https://sa2020.siggraph.org/.../computer.../sessions/22/4

Skynut - Mega Tank Breakdown /  by Aleks Sakowski

A closer look at Shot 28 - The Mega Tank defence wall. Illustration time lapse and rig breakdown. Layout and comp was done by Aleksander Sakowski and the final illustration rendering was done by Linhan Ye.

The goal behind this beast was to make it feel HUGE. Using the right kind of cameras here is key in giving that effect. The previous shot being at ground level looking up towards the barrel also showing drones here gives us a sense of scale from a human perspective. Then we reveal the Tank wall from an aerial shot giving us the full view of the scene while small drones charge past.

The Tanks were done on an isometric perspective - this allows us to only have to illustrate one tank. You can then place that tank multiple times and the perspective will always be correct. RTS games use this same technique, which is why an aerial shot is the perfect way to frame the scale of these defences.

Skynut - Nutkraka Illustration Time Lapse /  by Aleks Sakowski

Nutkraka Illustration Time Lapse. Drawn on an I-pad using procreate.

We knew that we were not going to animate all the characters but the idea was to have a bad ass line up of female warriors that all had their own style and deeper story to them. The Mech was Illustrated by Aleksander Sakowski, The human pilot was done by Daniel Zhang.

I would not consider my self a strong illustrator but as a background character that's on screen for only a few seconds I think it came out alright

Drone Rush - Shot build /  by Aleks Sakowski

A closer look at building the drone rush shot in Skynut. Music by The Gentle Men. When compositing a shot I use a process of layering. For the sake of the video I have broken the comp into passes but in real life these passes just blend into one another. Details below

Pass 01 - All animations are done in pre-comps and the drone is a running loop cycle (the run was animated by Dane Jacobs), the pre-comps are then brought into the master comp. (you can see the drone breakdown in the making of) First I get my camera timing of my start and end point. Focusing on the hero assets in the shot.

Pass 02 - Placing rough environment assets to gauge the speed and depth of the shot. In this case the shot was focused on the drones rather than the environment assets so the ground planes are literally just after effects grey solids to speed up the process. Each solid is the same value at first. To create the first layer of depth I use white solids with feathered masks and opacity to break up the layers then fine tune the value of the solids from there.

Pass 03 - Adding camera dynamics and focus. With a shot like this there is a lot going on, and it is easy for the eye to get lost. focus helps the viewer pay attention to the key areas you want them to look at. This also blends the depth and allows you to focus on key visual areas of the comp. Here we turn on depth of field; starting sharper on the mid ground then pulling focus to the foreground as the camera cranes up. The shot needed to feel chaotic but dynamic, the energy here is war so it needs to feel like that in the camera. Held effects are created manually by animating the position and rotation of the camera.

Pass 04 - Once the camera is locked I begin to add hero environment assets and start to play with the colour of the shot. Pre-renderd smoke plumes and spark ambers are all generated with Trapcode Particular. These stock renders I made at the start of the project and were added to many shots throughout the video.

Pass 05 - Laser effects are added to the main comp rather than to the animated pre-comps. The reason for this is how blending modes work. The laser beams are all generated using white solids with animated masks and some 2d fx asset on top of them.

Pass 06 - Final 2d fx are added and the camera is fine tuned to react to the explosions. Here we also add Chromatic Aberration. My philosophy is that 2d animation should inherently feel a little rough around the edges and hand made. Without these added filters the image looks super sharp and crisp. Animation made in the 80s and 90s was mostly illustrated cells photographed against hand drawn background. Filming with a physical camera you gives you lens artifacts like chromatic aberrations and film grain which digital production does not have unless you add it. We added those here as the final grade to give it that organic feel. The reason I add it is - things should not always be perfect and sharp, roughness adds more feeling to your shot and makes it feel more hand made. Even though the entire production is digital I still want people to remember that this is all hand made. Thanks for watching, you can see more here. https://www.sakowskistudios.com/skynut

Neon Apocalypse /  by Aleks Sakowski

Great to see people enjoying the new project. To answer a few general questions I’ve been getting - When Charlie and Troy told us about the idea, we had to find a cunning way to execute it, which is part of the challenge of directing. An idea like this could end up coming across as toilet humor or as you see in the video.

My idea was to make it an over the top anime that that looks like it could be a feature film. I think Charlie wanted something a bit more simple when we started, something that could have been done in 3 months, but when we showed him the first few shots he was blown away and wanted to keep it at that quality. So thanks to Charlie and Troy’s patience you now see it as its final form.

It was a small team. I took Charlie’s initial idea and fleshed it out into the final story, I did all the storyboards, directed, animated, layout, composited and illustrated some misc assets. Linhan the lead illustrator is an absolute legend. He drew about %70 of the assets you see. Daniel Zhang worked on General Troy, the male soldiers, Charlie’s character and the female soldier designs. We took our time trying to make them all feel like there is more to their story. Yen lee and Thaw Naing helped with some additional backgrounds, Simon Crane and Dane Jacobs helped with some additional animations. Matt Haworth illustrated one background, Karl Willis modelled the missile and Haku Milua helped with the japanese translations.

The project took about 8 months of part time work. We used After Effects and Photoshop to make it and I also used procreate. All the assets are 2d illustrations composited in a 3d space so we like to call it 2.5d. The only 3d asset was the Missile.

Due to time and budget constraints we could not afford to do 24fps cell animation so this project was designed to push the limits of motion comic techniques using a combination of limited-frame character art, epic volumetric backgrounds and slick motion graphic compositing showered in cyber-neon cinematography. On a bigger project in the future we hope to be able to introduce 24fps cell animation but the idea here was to make some cool designs that would make you think “I want to see more of that!”

If the futures from the Matrix and the Terminator had a nineties anime love child, Skynut is it. A love letter to the legendary animes of the last three decades Skynut pays homage to the likes of Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Ninja Scroll, Samurai Champloo and The Animatrix to name a few.

Thanks for watching we have a lot of art to share and hope to make more cool projects like this in the future. Check out our making here.